1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector, and more particularly to a connector that may be an SMT (Surface Mount Technology) type or T/H (Through Hole) type. Connectors of the two types use a same mold to reduce the manufacturing cost of the connectors.
2. Description of Related Art
USB (Universal Serial Bus) connectors are the most common and popular connectors. Computers and peripherals usually have USB connectors for data transmission. USB-IF (USB Implementers Forum) has started to develop a USB 3.0 protocol to replace the prevailing USB 2.0 protocol.
With reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, a T/H type USB 3.0 connector provisionally set by the USB-IF has an insulative housing (90), a plurality of terminals (1a-9a) and a metal shell. The terminals (1a-9a) are mounted through the insulative housing (90). The metal shell covers the insulative housing (90) and terminals (1a-9a).
The terminals (1a-9a) are the T/H type and each terminal has a soldering section that may be mounted through a mounting hole of a printed circuit board (PCB). The soldering sections of the terminals (1a-9a) disposed in a staggered arrangement, as shown in FIG. 2. The definitions of the terminals (1a-9a) are as the following table.
TABLE 1TerminalDefinitionTerminal (9a)STP_Tx+Terminal (1a)PWRTerminal (8a)STP_Tx−Terminal (2a)UTP_D−Terminal (7a)STP_Rx_DrainTerminal (3a)UTP_D+Terminal (6a)STP_Rx+Terminal (4a)GND_PWRrtTerminal (5a)STP_Rx−
With further reference to FIGS. 3 and 4, a SMT type USB 3.0 connector has the soldering sections of power and grounding terminals (1a, 4a) being flat and Z-shaped and remaining soldering sections being flat and straight to make all the soldering sections of the terminals (1a-9a) disposed in a straight line. The definitions of the terminals (1a-9a) are as shown in the aforementioned Table 1.
As shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 and Table 1, the soldering section of the power transmitting terminal (1a) is between the soldering sections of two signal transmitting terminals (9a, 8a) so that the power transmitting terminal (1a) interferes with the signal transmitting terminals (9a, 8a) and reduce the stability of transmitting signals. Similarly, the soldering section of the grounding terminal (4a) is between the soldering section of two signal receiving terminals (6a, 5a) so that the grounding terminal (4a) interferes with the signal receiving terminals (6a, 5a) and disadvantages the signal receiving stability.
Furthermore, the flat and Z-shaped sections of the terminals (1a, 4a) of the SMT type connector is formed by a specific mold different from the mold for manufacturing the terminals of the T/H type connector. Therefore, the terminals of the SMT type and the T/H type connectors cannot be manufactured by the same mold, which increases the manufacturing cost of the connector.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides a connector to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.